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Cisco announced the Videoscape platform expansion at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) now underway in Las Vegas. Back at the 2011 CES event, Cisco first announced Videoscape as a network video delivery platform. The initial Videoscape technology platform was based on Linux, using technology Cisco gained through its acquisition of Extend Media in August of 2010.

The new Videoscape cloud software runs in the cloud, including OpenStack powered clouds. Service providers will now be able to run their own Videoscape cloud software instances. Cisco is also announcing Videoscape Cloud Services. The cloud services model is a consumption-based Videoscape model delivered by Cisco.

Cisco is no stranger to the cloud or OpenStack, as a founding member of the OpenStack Foundation. Cisco also has its own OpenStack Edition as well as productized support, which the vendor announced in November of 2013.

Using OpenStack as a video delivery platform base isn't a new thing for Cisco, either. At the OpenStack Portland Summit in April of 2013, Comcast demonstrated its X1 TV program guide platform, which was developed with OpenStack and Cisco assistance.

Videoscape Cloud already has at least one big-name customer deployment in the works. Cisco announced today that NBC, owned by Comcast, will use the new Videoscape Cloud Solution for its production of the 2014 Olympic Winter games in Sochi, Russia. The games start in February.

"Cisco is a trusted partner who we have marked many milestones with, collaborating on IP video contribution and multiscreen delivery, and now cloud-based infrastructure," Craig Lau, vice president, Information Technology, NBC Olympics, said in a statement. "We are excited about the benefits and options cloud-powered video services bring us, including added agility, portability, flexibility and scalability of our networks, to meet the demands with much less engineering and prep time."